Home Sweet Home ~ Negril, Jamaica
And, if you couple that warm, old homestead ambience with the incredible vista that is available for a select few from the Negril cliffs in Jamaica, wow - what a vacation destination.
We did all the research we could, living as we do in a different country.
We checked every source we could find, we saw the old HSH website and the spanking new website just launched (www.homesweethomeresort.com) in the last couple of months or so, for the Home Sweet Home hotel on Jamaica's Negril cliffs. And it is a real, nice, website!
Every comment we saw on line was positive.
The pictures on the Home Sweet Home website showed green, green grass, trees and shrubs in flowering glory, brightly painted and clean looking rooms, and man, we couldn't wait to get there, gob-smacked by winter as we were.
Charlie Rossley, the owner of Home Sweet Home, seems like a real nice guy. He plucks a mean guitar, and was kind enough to jam (if you can call the fumble fingered efforts I extended that evening, jamming). I like him.
The staff at Home Sweet Home; Tina (manager), Petal (room caretaking), Sycamore (bartender and restaurant server), Terry (kitchen boss and cook) and Chris (driver) were friendly, helpful, and quick to respond. All hotels in Negril should have caring staff like these.
Yet our experience at HSH, for the three days we stayed before we moved out early, was pretty unimpressive. Here is why.
We had arranged transport to Home Sweet Home from Montego Bay ourselves. I remember thinking how excited I was as the van approached One Love Boulevard up on the Negril cliffs, and then, careening around another blind corner on the narrow, sidewalk-less road, was Home Sweet Home.
We turned into the driveway, late in January 2011, for what was for us, to be an extended stay.
Almost immediately, Sycamore arrived in the driveway, flashing a big grin, with his hand extended to greet us. We offloaded our gear, and headed up to check in.
The signs pointing to the cliffs, the bar, the office were cute, if a little weatherworn. The pathway between the rock borders was a mix of uneven, multi-hued concrete and stone. The entrance to the office was unimpressive, and as we entered, my heart sank.
The office was dirty, run-down, kind of looking like it was either between or certainly in need of a good cleaning and/or renovating.
Nevertheless, Ms Tina bubbled into the office, her flip-flops doing just that on the pathway, as she rushed to greet us. We checked in, and headed over to our guestroom.
On the short walk to our room, I noticed that the pathway was in poor shape. The lawns and gardens that blossomed in green and the multi-hued rainbows of West Indies colour on the website were barren. The trees looked stripped. The lawns were not much more than bare dirt, with the, I guess, irrigation and water supply pipes lying on the surface. What decorative fencing that was there was leaning, parts missing, the pots of barely living plants offering scant colour and no beauty to the premises.
And our room.... (more on Home Sweet Home right here!)
